The Candle Ballads
by Fatespeaker
Summary: The SkyWing tribe is rich in musical and poetic heritage. For generations, stories have been passed down through the beautiful medium of traditional song. Discover the ballads of Candle, a tragic heroine. Delve into the lost SkyWing lore: a cursed queen, illegitimate heir, and dark royal secret. Sweet romance. Bloody vengeance. It's all guaranteed in this unique, lyrical narrative!
1. Part I (The First Ballad)

**The First Ballad**

Come hither SkyWings, I'll tell you a song  
We'll begin with a right, end with a wrong  
Fly with me back to an old carmine sky  
Stained red by fire burning fierce to the eye  
Here the dance begins around sweet Candle

Forest aflame billows black breaths of smoke  
Swaths of land sizzle by scarlet storm's stroke  
O blessing of burning, weapon of mine  
Crackle and cackle as raging fires dine  
Life into ash, that is the way, Candle

Licking like tongues of some battle-born beast  
Now higher the hot flames leap, leaning east  
And the fumes, o the smoke, the air's gone dry  
Leaves curl and sap pops and little plants die  
Twas overgrown, ready to burn, Candle

Once a peaceful place where spring breezes played  
Once a green hillside steeped toward pretty glade  
A hopeful habitat, many miles wide  
Prey for plenty dragons, this land supplied  
All gone, all burnt, because of you, Candle

Hunting ground lost is unfortunate, yes  
But he aptly avoided bigger mess  
No SkyWings fly 'round here, not at this time  
No dragons to witness commissioned crime  
Your death will be a private one, Candle

Mid-way through, he enters this tale's proem -  
A royal dragon flies into the poem  
The son of the SkyWings, one to behold  
See the hesitant prince with scales of gold  
His bravery flickers like a candle

He is not the type to be murdering  
Indeed, his is a case quite hard to sing  
The Gold Prince is weeping, wishing to change  
He looks to the left and spies something strange  
A tree burns like the wick of a candle

A bird - an eagle - stands guard at a nest  
The fire surrounds, but the bird does her best  
Eaglets she protects, the chicks cannot fly  
'An omen!' he gasps, and gives a pained cry  
He remembers an egg and a candle

Know that this dragon _reluctantly_ sinned  
His wildfire wishes wax in the hot wind  
If only, if only, he could do right  
O no, O no, he thinks now, but he might...  
He might make a miracle, my Candle

The Gold Prince swoops down, down into the fire  
And reclaims the egg left there for the pyre  
It's warm as an ember, did it survive  
Cherry red eggshell, please keep her alive  
'She's my sister, and I name her Candle!'


	2. Part II (The Second Ballad)

**The Second Ballad**

Enter the Queen, who broods in her tower  
Wary of those who envy her power  
The palace her prison, though she presides  
For the disease of dread eats her insides  
The moon a-rising is dead day's daughter

Now she with scales orange as favored flame, stands  
Surveying through thick glass her listless lands  
What a beautiful view, bequeathed by blood -  
Interrupting her thinking comes a thud!  
Painting framed falls to the floor: her daughter

Where the vestige of voice groans on and on  
The windows whisper of the bygone dawn  
There the quivering Queen recalls those words  
That flutter and mutter like broken birds  
Spoken, once only, mother to daughter

Do you miss it, mistress of this mountain?  
Do your own wishes well up from back then?  
The summers spent serving as a second  
No troubles were yours, no owed recompense  
You were once a carefree SkyWing daughter

She shivers, shadows take shapes in her mind  
Eyes closed, she remembers days less divine  
And ponders the vows that run in her veins  
Her mistake, her mate, how his passing pains  
She must secure the throne for her daughter...

 _There in courtyard the contestants fell_  
 _Grappling on the ground to the clanging bell_  
 _As the nobles and courtiers looked on_  
 _Red and orange dueling under lilac dawn_  
 _On the day a queen lost to her daughter_

 _Twas a short battle, won by the next hour_  
 _O but the stakes: the SkyWing crown's power!_  
 _The presiding, wine red scaled queen had known_  
 _By no fair means would her heir win the throne_  
 _Yet somehow the victor was the daughter_

 _The usurper's claws raked her throat, she died -_  
 _Yes, the good red queen who used to preside_  
 _Slain by her own offspring, she would soon expire -_  
 _Not before breathing one last deadly fire_  
 _A curse of the dying, on her daughter_

 _'You could not have bested me by yourself_  
 _What poison did you take from my own shelf?'_  
 _Indeed, a venom most vicious was used_  
 _By that heir whose greed could not be refused_  
 _That clever killer, the queen's prized daughter_

 _'I loved you once,' the queen said with chagrin_  
 _Then she whispered words that chilled the cheat's skin._  
The words, the WORDS, that our Queen dares not face  
Staring out at her nation, her thoughts race  
She turns away and shouts for her daughter


	3. Part III (The Third Ballad)

**The Third Ballad**

Where is the egg that was saved from a fire?  
Where is that dragonet, the stars inquire?  
Find here the sister of the Prince of Gold  
Find here the heir of the dynasty old  
She's laughing and soaring the sapphire sky!

Scales apple red as the egg that held her  
Gaze that gleams amber, swift wings all a-blur  
This is the princess illicit, a child  
She plays unseen in the green forest wild  
And twirls, free and secret, in the wide sky

Far from a castle with tall gilded halls  
Safe from her mother and cursed, crumbling walls  
Her brother has raised her far from that eye  
That so long ago condemned her to die  
The cruel Queen has not seen this distant sky

The Gold Prince calls that dear name, 'Wait, Candle!'  
Does he fear she flies too high to handle?  
Does he know what fire will stir in her bones?  
O that poor Golden Prince, he should have known  
When years pass, she will yearn for more than sky

One day in the meadow of white flowers  
A young dragon, Shrike, sat counting hours  
Lost to this forest on a wayward wind  
Fate fumbled with him, too late to rescind  
He gazed up and beheld her in the sky

Candle, who danced in the drafts of the morn  
With shimmering sunlight crowning her horns  
Candle, who dared to fly over the clouds  
Whooping and singing and shouting aloud  
While Shrike picked at petals, watching the sky

Cresting air currents, Candle had a start  
For he caught her eye as she caught his heart  
Thrown into flight by folly of fresh love  
He glided up to where she soared above  
And she circled him there in the blue sky

A breeze and a look passed between the pair  
Passion inside her, alit with this flare -  
He gave her gardenia blooms, purest white  
Then flew beside her all through the bright night  
Smiling together, they shared the new sky

Later they talked and walked the old pathways  
Brashly, Shrike asked Candle for all her days  
Confessing her love, she made a request  
That they flee and fly free and see the west  
'Shrike,' said she, 'I want to know the whole sky!'

With Shrike, Candle forgot all she'd been taught  
Abandoned her brother, left him distraught  
Though of young romance oft tell tragic songs  
Love compelled Candle and Shrike to fly off  
Leaving the Gold Prince in an empty sky


	4. Part IV (The Fourth Ballad)

**The Fourth Ballad**

A monarch reflects on what she has done  
And the price of a duel unfairly won  
Foremost the curse, that must be understood  
From one denied justice and motherhood:  
The wine red and long dead previous queen

 _O hear me, you villain, you unfit heir  
_ _Until a legitimate queen sits there -  
_ _Let the throne of the Sky Kingdom be cursed  
_ That was her vengeance, those haunting last words  
Now they poison the mind of the Mad Queen

She laughed once, thinking then that it was wrong  
For every sky dragon sang proud her song  
Back then her future seemed brilliant, bright  
All thoughts of her mother's fall were quite slight  
Now that's weight on the wings of this sad queen

A chill down her spine as she recollects  
Her heart thuds, she gasps, she longs to forget  
First her beloved, the SkyWing king, died  
The curse of the castle stirred as she cried  
But that was not the end for the bad queen

O the Queen, recalling her past disgrace  
Paces the gardens with grief on her face  
Here a red rose bush, there those secret woes  
This is where she fell, yet no dragon knows  
Walking unseen, remembers the Mad Queen

His name was Buzzard, a plain palace guard  
She flew with him and was forever marred  
She gave him a scarlet bouquet one night  
Reluctant, he held her, thought all was right  
Their time made an egg, laid by the Mad Queen

That forbidden egg was hidden away  
Knowing what would come and what she would pay  
The Queen prepared there to make its death brief  
But then doubled over with guilt and grief  
I cannot kill my child, thought the Mad Queen

She banished him, threatened to strike him dead  
Then studied this egg made from two unwed  
Still she could not kill it, her instincts warred  
Feeling ill, she keeled, so distinctly torn  
Was this the worst of the curse of the queen?

'I shall wait and see,' said she hopelessly  
To that tapestry that hung grotesquely  
The woven eyes leered, knowing and serene  
Kept alive somewhere, the egg so obscene  
'Reviled child,' whispers the withered Mad Queen

Though the Mad Queen's heart was dark and hardened  
In the silence of the SkyWing gardens -  
Perhaps a quiet, quick sob went unheard  
As her grief circled her like a buzzard  
She would see _her_ princess as the next queen


End file.
